← Deadline: White House
Deadline: White House
"Trump faces public opinion at Madison Square Garden"
00:42:22
Donald Trump waded into Madison Square Garden last night, amid plunging poll numbers, rising prices for just about everything, and an increasingly angry political coalition.
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- [00:01]
Narrator/Announcer
Lamine Yamal steps into McDonald's, looks left, sees Pulisic, looks right, sees Jimenez, gives a nod to Ronaldinho in the corner with a FIFA World cup meal. Ronaldinho sees son in the booth. Son finds Beckham going for extra Big Mac sauce. He's got Davies at the table just behind him. Davey's going for his collectible cup. A steal by Henry, who pulls his own collectible cup. Collect one of nine legendary cups with a FIFA World cup meal.
- [00:25]
Co-host/Commentator
Participating McDonald's for a limited time while supplies last. All rights reserved.
- [00:28]
20:26 McDonald's at FIFA World Cup 20:26
- [00:30]
Commercial Voice
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- [00:53]
Main Host
Hi everyone, it's four o'clock in New York. Donald Trump, you may have heard this already, waded into Madison Square Garden last night. And he did so amid plunging poll numbers, rising prices for just about everything, and an increasingly angry and agitated political coalition appearing to expect the kind of reception that he gets from his cabinet members who fawn all over him, thinking that that would somehow extend to 20,000 New York Knicks fans. Here's how that went down. But it wasn't just that they were booing inside Madison Square Garden. Here's how the broader city of New York received Donald Trump. I've never heard so much beeping as I did watching local news and the game last night. But Donald Trump is never one to let that reality get in the way of his own egos or delusions. And so this was his readout of how he was received at the Garden last night.
- [02:23]
Narrator/Announcer
I thought great. I mean, I thought it was amazing, actually. You mean when they had the camera on me, I thought it was very good. Yeah, it was certainly amazing. It was. It was, I think, mostly cheers. It was. It was loud and it was very enthusiastic
- [02:42]
Main Host
because of course, last night was all about him and mostly cheers. It's not what anybody else heard. Let's let you hear it for yourself. This is that so called mostly cheers? Maybe from a different angle. I think Rachel called them salty, salty reception. Now there's another explanation, though. It is possible that he didn't know how badly he was received. He appeared to take a little snooze a roo during the game. I think he might be the only person who was sleeping during last night's game. Trump's seven hours in New York City is as good of a way into talking about where his entire presidency stands. He appears to many Americans to be asleep at the wheel. Seventeen months into his second term as president, his approval rating remains at near record lows. It's 35% in the newest poll Reuters survey released yesterday. Americans say they are growing frustrated with Trump's economy and despite Trump's best efforts to gaslight the American people about how he would like things to be, saying the same gaggle where he said it was amazing, his reception, not the game or Jalen Brunson or Josh Hart or anybody else, just the cheers for him. That's what he was talking about. He also said that gas prices are, quote, not that high, relatively speaking, but at this point, voters aren't buying it. In that same Reuters poll, 70% of Americans disapprove of Donald Trump's handling of the cost of living. 59% of Americans say they expect gas prices specifically to get higher in the coming year. One MSNow analyst, a former staffer from Donald Trump's first term, puts it like this, quote, the president has lost all credibility on the economy, the number one priority of the American people. He has lost control over the ending of the war. The administration is rudderless. Trump is enamored with being president, yet wants nothing to do with the job. After giving up on governing with no vision, the president has turned to what's simply in his line of sight, event after unrelated event, speech after rambling speech. He is obsessed with what he perceives as the beautification of his D.C. bubble. He talks about fountains, his arch, his ballroom, a repainted reflecting pool, a UFC fight at the White House, and a partisan rally for himself. After the failure of a planned concert on the National Mall, his appointees proposed plastering his face on passports and on $250 bills. Banners with Trump's looming image adorn government buildings in Washington, while Trump rants about not being able to put his name on the Kennedy Center. The second Trump administration is already a lost cause at home and abroad. He has made himself a lame duck president and is getting lamer by the day. Donald Trump dragging down America as his political impotence reveals itself in bouts of authoritarian fits and spurts is where we begin today with some of our favorite reporters and friends. Staff writer for the Atlantic political analyst Ashley Parker is back with us. It's so nice to see you, my friend. Also joining us, former senior advisor to President Biden and Vice President Harris, the former mayor of New Orleans, Mitch Landry is here. It's very nice to see you too, my friend. He's now the co chair of American Bridge 21st century. With me at the table for the very first time, former New York State senator Daniel Squadron. He's the author of of a must read new book called the Fourth How State Government can Save Our Union. We'll talk about that in a minute. I'll start with you. You were at the game.
- [06:25]
Co-host/Commentator
I was.
- [06:26]
Main Host
Did they boo? I know. Look, it was never. Can we talk about the game for a sec? It doesn't have to happen in four. We're going to win.
- [06:33]
Co-host/Commentator
We can't get greedy.
- [06:35]
Main Host
And it doesn't have to.
- [06:37]
Co-host/Commentator
Let's let it come.
- [06:38]
Main Host
It's coming, it's coming.
- [06:40]
Co-host/Commentator
I will never say Knicks and whatever, just Knicks.
- [06:42]
Main Host
Let's go Knicks.
- [06:44]
Co-host/Commentator
So I was at the game.
- [06:45]
Main Host
Yeah. Did they boo?
- [06:46]
Co-host/Commentator
Well, you need to be fair to the.
- [06:48]
Main Host
Some people cheered.
- [06:49]
Co-host/Commentator
I heard there were three less popular people in that arena. Okay, the refs, they got booed more. But beyond that, you know, I'd have to say the next loudest set of boos I heard was right there during the national anthem when the President's face came on the screen.
- [07:04]
Main Host
And I mean the thing about his face on the screen and actually this to me, as sort of an ex staffer, I always think about the staff's decisions. If you never put his face on the screen, you could have said all the boos were for the refs. And you're right, there were enough. It's almost like the vanity is the thing that lets everyone else see how unpopular he is. But he's in this narcissistic hamster wheel where he couldn't resist having his face up there. So of course everybody booed.
- [07:33]
Co-host/Commentator
Well, of course. And maybe New York City is obviously not a Trump town. Maybe they were thinking lots of people are coming in from parts of Jersey and Long island where he did a lot better. Those secondary market tickets are really expensive. There's industries where he did a lot better. But even when you would expect more popularity in that arena last night because of who was able to be there, the boos were still that loud. I think it's a real sign that his base is collapsing.
- [07:59]
Main Host
Yeah, I mean, Ashley, you don't need one of your epic 36 or stories to know that like the pressure cooker's about to burst. I mean, this is, and I, I wondered this out loud around the state of the union about his information loop, the quad, the caliber and the quality of information he's getting to me. He seems on top of everything else in an information bubble, like he's just not hearing the truth about anything.
- [08:31]
Political Analyst
Well, I'd say it's two things, right? He does have people around him, not everyone, but a lot of people who tell him what he wants to hear, who are sort of like little puppies depositing at his feet. You know, polls that wouldn't really pass muster on your network or my magazine that, you know, show him doing well. So there is some of that. But I actually think one thing that is so striking is, is what you actually played of him getting booed and then his response about the great reaction and how it was mainly cheers. And he has always had that ability to sort of will himself and often other people in the country, others around him, into that level of self delusion and will his own reality has served him well. And at the end of the day, it's kind of benign. If he wants to claim that all those booze were cheers for him, fine. But one thing that has been so striking about the recent months in his presidency is he has run up against the one reality he cannot will, which is voters know what gas prices are. Voters know how much it costs to go to the grocery store. Voters know if they are now going to two grocery stores to use all of their coupons or to get the best deals at each one. And they know how much money they have in their checking accounts or how much they don't at the end of the month. And this is the one thing, despite this long history and lifetime of willing reality, that he cannot will. And that is why he is paying a political price in his approval numbers.
- [10:01]
Main Host
I mean, Mitch, I think it's that plus the wars. I was around someone who's been enamored with Donald Trump for a decade and she still likes him a lot, but she hates the war. And so it's this, it's this triple betrayal, I think. One is the economy, two is the war, and three is the vibes are embarrassing. I mean, gramps is asleep literally every time he's out in public, so God only knows what he's doing in private.
- [10:30]
Co-host/Commentator
Well, I think that if you ask people what they think, which is always a wise thing to do, they will tell you that the reason I voted for Donald Trump is because he said he was gonna get out of forever wars, because our investments in wars were hurting our pocketbooks. And he's actually tried to figure out a way to do the exact opposite of what he said he was gonna do. And people feel Betrayed because he lied to them again. But more importantly, the war is causing actually the cost to go up. And so these people are saying, wait a minute, I'm really confused about what you're doing. You focused on bombs and ballrooms, but you're not focused on my pocketbook. And I may care about democracy, I may care about a bunch of other stuff, but what I really care about is supporting myself, making my rent, making my car payment, putting food on the table for my kids. And they can't do that right now. And no matter how many times he says they're okay, they're telling him, no, you know, I'm not. And now I'm pissed. And so that is, that is why we spent this much time talking to working class people, which actually won the election in his favor and are really up for grabs, and we're going to go get them. And I think those people have been very clear about what they want, what they care about, and why the President's not delivering for them. And they want to make a different choice. Now.
- [11:36]
Main Host
This is your new ad. Let me, let me play this. This is for an Iowa race. I'll play it and we'll talk about it on the other side.
- [11:46]
Reporter/Contributor Pablo Torre
I'm Brad. I'm a personal trainer.
- [11:47]
Main Host
I live here in Iowa.
- [11:49]
Reporter/Contributor Pablo Torre
I voted for Donald Trump because he
- [11:51]
Main Host
said no new wars and we're going
- [11:52]
Reporter/Contributor Pablo Torre
to bring costs down.
- [11:54]
Main Host
The opposite happened, and now I'm paying for it. Costs haven't went down at all.
- [11:58]
Reporter/Contributor Pablo Torre
And Joe Mitchell is right there in lockstep with Trump on all of this. He's not really one of us. I think he just moved into the
- [12:05]
Main Host
district to run for Congress.
- [12:06]
Reporter/Contributor Pablo Torre
That's everything that we hate about politics.
- [12:09]
Main Host
Someone like Joe Mitchell will never know
- [12:12]
Reporter/Contributor Pablo Torre
what my life is like.
- [12:15]
Main Host
This is so brilliant. And there are two things that I think are so on the nose about this moment, and I struggle to get at it in two hours, and you get at it right there in about 30 seconds. That's why the ad people are so smart. But this idea that because we incessantly cover his impact on Republican primaries, we ignore the toxicity. I mean, poll after poll show that what Americans hate most about Republicans is that they do everything Trump says. And this is almost turning the whole anti establishment wave that lifted Trump twice, almost three, almost in 2020. But this is sort of where a lot of the heat is in his movement. Stick it to the elite, stick it to anyone that rigs anything against us, to the sort of fancy pants consultants. This is taking that away from them. And the other piece is, is about this political opportunism. He doesn't even live here. He's not one of us. He's in lockstep with Trump. Just talk about why this is working.
- [13:18]
Co-host/Commentator
Well, first of all, great, great ads are the ones that are simple, that are true, and that are authentic. In that ad are his words. They came directly from the folks. They say it over and over and over again. The difference is that Donald Trump is so egomaniacal, he thinks that everybody voted for him, will never think about voting for anybody else. Well, they don't really care that much about Donald Trump unless Donald Trump is going to help them. These people are really hurting. And so whether they're a personal trainer or a farmer or a mom or a dad, that's saying the same thing over and over and over again. And which is the president has lost focus. He's not focused on me. He's focused on himself. He's focused on hurting his enemies. He's focused on the war. He's focused on the ballroom. In the meantime, my life is just hard as hell. And they are very frustrated. The thing that we're doing now is we're playing in every district that we possibly can play in. We're expanding the playing field. And Republicans are having a very difficult time. Even in plus three, plus seven Trump districts, his numbers are in the toilet. I mean, they're really, really lower and louder than the boos were last night in Madison Square Garden.
- [14:22]
Main Host
Let's go back to the booze. This is Stephen A. Smith on Trump there last night.
- [14:27]
Narrator/Announcer
My other side came out last night when I recognized that businesses that are accustomed to being patronized were compromised by you because you showed up. The crowd that surrounded the Madison Square Garden and its surrounding areas, you compromised. I thought you were about the economy. I thought you were about helping New Yorkers because you love New York. I thought you were about making money for people. What happened to the parking garages? How much money did they make? What happened to the local restaurants in the immediate vicinity of Madison Square Garden? How much money did they make? We know you've made a lot of money.
- [15:04]
Main Host
I'm not always sure what to do with the things he says, but this is, I would cover this sort of, of as tension inside the family. Right. This is calling BS basically from inside the political coalition that elected him.
- [15:17]
Co-host/Commentator
I think that's right. And I think that was the gamble they made last night. And you're seeing it everywhere. You're seeing it with the folks who were Biden Trump voters. You're seeing it with the folks who, for personal tax reasons, were with him three times, some of the folks who thought he was speaking for them at some point. He's someone who is much better being on the outside telling lies about what he'll do and what's wrong, what he'll
- [15:42]
Main Host
do when he topples the power structure.
- [15:45]
Co-host/Commentator
I actually think people are pretty smart about this and they can see that this is a completely selfish opportunism and he even knows it. My focus is on states. He is so panicked that he is calling state officials to try to save himself in the midterms. So, you know, there's a part of him that understands the reptilian survival stuff, right? The votes won't be there. And so, you know, there's two things going on. Of course, you know, I'm untouchable. And on the other hand, personally getting on the phone to state lawmakers. Imagine that as a president of the United States, personally on the phone to state lawmakers. Save me, draw new congressional maps. Save me. Change your voting laws.
- [16:23]
Main Host
I want to show you a map, Ashley, that reminded me of that hurricane that he put a Sharpie marker on. This is his plunging poll numbers. This is from the Economist YouGov poll and the precipitous drop of the second term. The top line is Trump's first term. The bottom line is his second term. I mean, it correlates to the start of the war in Iran. But even before that, when he announced the tariffs, I mean, everything he has done since Inauguration Day, the political retribution, the obsession with his political enemies, the destruction of the Department justice, the gutting of the FBI, so we are vulnerable at a time of war with Iran, the purges, the destruction of usaid, the debacle that was Doge. Every single thing has hurt him. Every single time he carries around his little picture of a gold ballroom, his poll numbers go down. Does that figure into anything they try to do with him from a day to day basis?
- [17:28]
Political Analyst
Well, let's just start with the ballroom. That's one of these striking things where even his supporters, you know, the donors around him, advisors, political people, they all wish he would stop talking about that. And again, that's sort of a metaphor for all of these things that are about himself, about him, his legacy and distractions from voters and frankly, what he promised voters, and the irony is voters, especially his supporters, and especially that raw coalition, give him credit, that voted for him in 2024, would be more sympathetic or willing to forgive something like the ballroom if things were going well for them if the economy felt better, if their jobs felt more secure, if their life felt less harried and less stressful. But what the ballroom has become is this big, golden, gleaming metaphor for a president who is not focused on them and what they care about and what only focused on himself. And again, his team is aware of that. Certainly the team that is the political team that is focused on for his own political purposes, trying to hold the House and hold the Senate, is very aware and is desperate for him to stop doing that. But as you point out, he loves those poster boards, those sort of high school diorama style things of the ballroom.
- [18:52]
Main Host
It's so bizarre that no one can take the AI rendering of a gold ballroom out of his hands for five minutes for him to talk about anything else. And if they do, he goes back to the picture of a body of water that's taller than buildings, a graphic. I don't even know who made that. Like, he clearly doesn't know how to print. Someone made that for him. I don't even know what it's supposed to show, that the pool is longer than the building. I mean, it is absolute nonsense. When we come back, we'll talk about that more. We're also going to turn to Daniel's book. Talk about Plan B, right? Is that what we called it? Forget Congress keeping a check on Donald Trump. What about state capitals and state legislatures? How Democrats can fight and save our democracy by embracing that front. It's the focus of Daniel's new book, the Fourth State. We'll talk about it next. Plus, the World cup with the United States is the primary. Host kicks off in a few days. And Trump's signature policy, the cruel immigration policy, is already leaving a mark on everyone from fans to players and even referees who've worked their entire careers and lives for this moment. We'll explain ahead later in the broadcast. Trump's election fraud narrative is not new to any of us, but his unproven claims about a stolen boat in California really is a test drive for what we can expect from him in November and why the 2026 Big Lie could be more dangerous than the big lie of 2020. We'll get to all those stories and much more when Deadline White House continues after a quick break. Don't go anywhere.
- [20:35]
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- [21:05]
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- [21:25]
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- [21:58]
Main Host
Like any aspiring autocrat, Donald Trump has asserted dominance rather effectively over the nation's three branches of government, essentially free from a lot of checks and balances. While spending much of his second term showing his disdain for states rights and prerogatives as well, our guest Daniel Squadron says Democrats need to engage more at that state level in politics. His brand new book, we mistitled it in our introduction. I apologize for that. It's called the Fourth How State Government Can Save Our Union. He writes this quote, states are the basic building blocks of our country. The actions they take are the coding proteins that control our nation's future. I wanted people to see that states are as important as any one of the federal branches when it comes to the rights that individuals in our country are guaranteed. When it comes to government's impact on everyday lives, when it comes to protecting the American experiment. Staring down the Trump presidency, I was getting impatient watching people spend enormous energy on things that didn't matter when they could do so much if they focused on state lawmakers. It was getting to me. We're all back. This feels like it is a brilliant political analysis and blueprint as well as this sort of Buddhist principle of focusing your energy where you can still where you can still control the outcome. Just talk about the book and the philosophy.
- [23:21]
Co-host/Commentator
There's certainly some serenity prayer in spending your career in State legislature, Right. And I actually think I ran for state legislature in my late twenties for the same reason that I left state legislature to co found an organization called the States Project. And the same reason I wrote the fourth branch, which is, in a democracy, people need to be rigorous with themselves about where they can have an impact. And a lot of folks feel like they're observers to the destruction of it right now. They're spectators. And in states they're not. A small number of people coming together can have an outsized impact in elections decided by a few dozen votes or fewer in campaigns that for an entire legislature cost less than a single congressional seat. And so there really is a power. Then the second question is, well, do they matter at all? Do they actually have power? And I think as Trump has shown us, as we've seen on every domestic policy issue in the last 15 years, states have done more harm or good than Congress has.
- [24:18]
Main Host
I mean, I think that's how a lot of our viewers feel. Right? They feel they're paying a lot of attention now, and we thank them for that, but they feel powerless in this moment.
- [24:29]
Co-host/Commentator
Do well. And if we're being honest, very few people who aren't on the ballot themselves are going to determine the outcome of the presidential race. It's the right thing to do, to stay involved and stay knowledgeable, watching your show vote. But actually, people should say, can I actually change the outcome? And they can. The way they do it is by really focusing on state legislatures, either in their own state or somewhere else. So in the fourth branch, I talk about sort of how you can do that. One way is you come together with a few neighbors and you say, you know what, there's an issue that our state should consider within the next year. And I say 20 people in a room focused on it for a year can make their issue a top tier issue in a state capital, or they can join with the state's project and form what we call a giving circle. These are grassroots donors that come together, choose a state they want to impact, and they get to choose where that state is, where their dollars go and what they're letting candidates do is get off the phone with the special interests that dominate state legislatures and get on the doors with the voters who they're asking to have hire them.
- [25:32]
Main Host
I mean, it happened organically around an external event in Minnesota, Minneapolis and St. Paul. What is sort of the mindset? I mean, and what happened there was a community that seemed to defy everything else that had happened in the second Trump turn to that point. He'd successfully bullied the Republican Party into submission. He successfully bullied fancy firms like Paul Weiss into submission. He'd successfully bullied fancy universities like Columbia into submission. And then the people of Minneapolis, after two of their neighbors were killed, took to the streets and said, no, I don't think so. Where does that piece come from in sort of. Is it the collective or where does that come from in people?
- [26:14]
Co-host/Commentator
Yeah, and actually, something really powerful is happening in Minneapolis, certainly on the streets, but also in state and local government. The idea that federal law enforcement could show up on the streets of an American city at best, stretching the limits of the Constitution and just do whatever they want was proven untrue because the state and the city would not cooperate. The power of state governments and city governments, cities, of course, are created by states to decide what happens within their own domains is really significant. I think a big story in Minneapolis is an enormous amount of courage on the streets and the impact of federal law enforcement or the federal government trying to just operate as those states are subsidiary to them. They're not. And the state of Minnesota, the cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul, said, we're not gonna cooperate. And that's what made it fundamentally not viable to do the kind of takeover that Trump thought he kind of could assume dominance in.
- [27:10]
Main Host
I mean, Mitch, it was also a mayor that said, get the F out of my city, and a governor. I don't remember if Governor Wallace dropped an F bomb, but, I mean, it was also the quality, and they were Democrats, of people who were leading that city in that state.
- [27:27]
Co-host/Commentator
Well, I haven't read Daniel's book yet, but I'm looking forward to it. As you know, I was a state legislator. I was a lieutenant governor of Louisiana and the mayor of New Orleans. So I'm a local government guy. There are two things that I want to say. Number one, Washington is broken. Almost 100% of people of America agree on that. And Donald Trump's taking it into the toilet and going to make it worse. But Daniel's right about this. The only thing governors and mayors cannot do is declare war and sign treaties. They can do pretty much everything else. And when a governor and a mayor in a state, whether it's a red state and a blue governor, or blue and blue, or red and red, there's a huge amount of innovation that takes place across America, and they don't have to have permission from the president or from Congress. So if Congress is going to be broken, people have the agency to do great things in this state. They are, in fact, the laboratories of innovation and change. And there's just some great examples of a lot of wonderful things going on in the cities. And you know what? Washington's gonna stay broken for a bit. It doesn't mean that we can't get anything done in the country. It would be better if it did work. It would be better if it wasn't hostile. But you know what? We don't have to wait around for the for the world to burn. As Donald Trump's trying to make it happen in such a short period of time.
- [28:37]
Main Host
I also feel like it could, it could get us to a place of Zen, right? Like let him paint all of the, I don't know, what is he painting? Paint everything gold and blue and whatever he wants and we'll take care of everything else. Ashley Parker, Mitch Landrieu, Daniel Squadro thank you so much for this conversation. The book the Fourth Branch is out right now. Coming up for us, how one of the most unifying sporty sporting events in the world already has a big Trumpian hangover and it hasn't even started. Who the US Is keeping from the World cup and why is our next story.
- [29:21]
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- [29:35]
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- [29:56]
If you're a parent and want to help set up your child for success, then IXL is right for your family as an effective and affordable online learning program. IXL covers math, language arts, science and social studies using interactive practice problems for kids from Pre K to 12th grade. Listeners can get an exclusive 20% off IXL membership when they sign up today@ixl.com 20. Visit ixl.com to get the most effective learning program out there at the best price.
- [30:29]
Main Host
In less than 48 hours, the FIFA World cup will kick off and Donald Trump's cruel immigration enforcement agenda is already messing it up. FIFA confirmed that a referee from Somalia who was set to officiate at the World cup, has been denied entry to the United States and will no longer be able to participate in the tournament. Omar Artan arrived at Miami International Airport on a flight from Istanbul Saturday. He was barred from entering the country following a routine inspection. He said this, quote, I am very, very disappointed. He said that in a New York Times interview, a telephone interview from Istanbul, the city he had been flown to after he was refused entry here. Quote, I'm just simply a referee who's trying to live his dream, the biggest dream of my life, to come to the World Cup. I had the right papers and everything. I had the right visa, Mr. Artan said, adding that he had also shown documentation from FIFA, as well as photographs of his career over a decade as a professional referee. Border officials also checked online material detailing Mr. Artan's career. He said he was named Referee of the year 2025 by the Confederation of African Football, which governed soccer in Africa. And the vice captain and star player for Iraq's team, Ayman Hussein, was also detained when the Iraq team arrived in the US this week. According to Reuters, Hussein was held at Chicago's o' Hare Airport for almost seven hours after arriving with his international teammates and staff members. I want to bring into our coverage Pulitzer Prize. That's the first time I've had that in your title. Pulitzer Prize winning host of the podcast Pablo Torre finds out, contributor Pablo Torre. Also joining us, political analyst Molly Jong Fast, whose Pulitzer is coming. Yes, she's the host of Fast Politics and a New York Times contributing opinion writer. What's going on?
- [32:22]
Reporter/Contributor Pablo Torre
You know, this is foreseen. I wish there was something beyond, look, we kind of told you so. But this is an administration that has decided to make theater out of its immigration policy in general. And now when they host the biggest party in the world, that's what the World cup is. It's a giant party. It is the global village. Everybody comes to the host nation, and the host nation happens to be ruled by administration that you cannot trust fundamentally when it comes to which story are they telling and which story are you buying? Are you buying the journalism? Are you buying the testimony from people who are saying this is the greatest ref from his part of the world, this is his reward? Or are you buying the noises that are now leaking out from the administration saying this is one of those bad hombres and it's like, well, great, here we have a familiar dynamic that is familiar across the news cycle to date.
- [33:18]
Main Host
What's interesting to me about covering the same Story, which is sort of the brutal and clunky nature of his immigration policies, is to see it encroach on a new world that in a lot of. And there are a lot of people that come here from other countries to play in a lot of sports, basketball, baseball in particular. But to see this event, which is such a global sports story, impacted negatively by his heinous immigration policies, is it an oversight? Is it intentional? I mean, what does your reporting suggest?
- [33:53]
Reporter/Contributor Pablo Torre
Malice and incompetence are really hard to tell apart. And at some point, my reporting suggests the difference is vanishing. That by signing up to do this and being a steward of this institution unto itself, like the World Cup, I should be clear about this. It is run by FIFA, and FIFA is the apex predator of all the corrupt global sporting bodies. Right.
- [34:14]
Main Host
Didn't they give Trump a fake trophy?
- [34:16]
Reporter/Contributor Pablo Torre
Correct. This is the fake Peace Prize. The fake Peace Prize.
- [34:19]
Main Host
They didn't get much for that.
- [34:20]
Reporter/Contributor Pablo Torre
No. And in fact, one wonders, will they award it ever again? It seems like a bit of a bespoke sort of thing. So I'm not here to fall on my fainting couch and say, the World cup is pure. It is always this tool of. Of, frankly, autocracy. That's its history. But when it comes to, therefore, why does the United States want in? Well, it raises all of these other questions of. Look, it was up to me, of course the United States would be a host, but it would be done with a level of transparency, with a level of commitment to not be yet another autocratic regime in a line of autocratic regimes that have signed up for this tournament to profit off of it at the expense of not only the characters for whom this is ostensibly for the players, the coaches, the referees, they would also do it because, hey, there is the potential of proving that all of these countries that may otherwise be at war with each other can coexist. You know, that's the Olympic ideal. That is what the World cup could be. And we're not getting any of that because, of course, every war is also a story of conflict of interest in this country right now.
- [35:33]
Main Host
What is interesting to me, immigration is one of the oldest Trump stories we've been covering now for a decade. So is appeasement. And so this sort of BS trophy they gave him obviously didn't work that well if their referees can't get into the country. Yeah.
- [35:47]
Panelist/Commentator
I mean, there's a really important detail in this story. I was reading it before, and his immigration interview ended after 11 hours.
- [35:57]
Main Host
Oh, my God.
- [35:58]
Panelist/Commentator
Yeah. So think about this the guy gets off his flight from Istanbul. He has all of the right papers, he has all of the right documentation. He is known as the referee of the year in Africa.
- [36:09]
Main Host
Like last year.
- [36:10]
Panelist/Commentator
Yeah, last year. So he's clearly a very serious person at this very serious sport. And he gets questioned for 11 hours. He actually gets sent somewhere else and again, and then he gets sent back to Istanbul. And. And so I think when you look at this administration, you cannot take immigration in a vacuum. You have to pull back and you have to say, like this administration that has children dying of measles, that has a screw. Screw worms are back.
- [36:39]
Main Host
All right?
- [36:40]
Panelist/Commentator
And if you. I'm gonna do you a favor right now and say do not Google them, but they are a really scary parasite that cattle. Cattle. And it's gonna make beef more expensive. We have all this, like, incompetence, all these things that were things we didn't have to worry. And so I think it is really important, like, it may be incompetence, it may be racism, it may be that these. That the immigration policies are racist. You know, it's all of that and the idea that they were going to have anything, you know, an international sporting event where people from other nations were going to have to come here and try to get in and have to deal with this level of incompetence. I mean, remember we were in the longest homeland security shutdown until a few weeks ago. I mean, this is not how government is supposed to work.
- [37:27]
Main Host
Work. And we have another guy talking about shutting down airports over Saint. I have to see a break. Much more on the other side. No one's going anywhere. We'll all be right back. Sorry. Not sorry for playing that again. Yeah, Pablo. So much booing.
- [38:08]
Reporter/Contributor Pablo Torre
The vibes were so good before all of this happened.
- [38:13]
Main Host
They were like, with a 13 game winning streak, hadn't lost in strength roll. A 13 game winning streak.
- [38:19]
Reporter/Contributor Pablo Torre
And everybody said it. Everyone was like, this feels like the turning point in the documentary when the music shifts and you push in on a guy who, it turns out, fell asleep during the game. So I just want to point this out. Adam Silver, the commissioner of the NBA, he gets up there and he's like, he's a lifelong fan.
- [38:37]
Main Host
That interview was ridiculous. Did you see what everyone else did?
- [38:40]
Reporter/Contributor Pablo Torre
Just the face of people who don't want to hear this because it doesn't resonate, right. Like, I know that Donald Trump showed up to MSG through various points in the 90s. There were lots of photo ops to be had when the Knicks were good the last time. This time, the idea.
- [38:56]
Main Host
I mean, if we're talking about it in the 90s, like, he donated to the Clintons and, like, said he was pro choice. Like, if we're gonna do Donald trump in the 90s, like, he was in sandlot and was pro abortion rights.
- [39:07]
Reporter/Contributor Pablo Torre
I would like to do Donald Trump in 2026 as our case study here, though, because we're told he's a fan, a lifelong fan, and he brings sports, basketball, brings things together. And isn't it beautiful that we have the president exhibiting that? And he falls asleep. He falls asleep. I forget about even just the. Like, you are doing the Biden thing that you claimed. Right. Forget about even just that hypocrisy. He then leaves with 8, 7 minutes left in the fourth quarter of a game that's still in doubt. So all of this disruption, hours of delay, the most security that we've ever seen at a basketball game ever, all of that ruining the vibes, the procedure, and they lost on the way to the first loss. It's like superstition on the one hand. And then just like the vibes.
- [39:58]
Main Host
Yeah.
- [39:58]
Reporter/Contributor Pablo Torre
We just reoriented the gravitational field of the most popular sporting event on the
- [40:04]
Main Host
planet right now in a city so desperate to win.
- [40:08]
Reporter/Contributor Pablo Torre
50 years. It's only been 50 years, Nicole.
- [40:11]
Panelist/Commentator
But it's also. There's something wonderful about this, Nick's series. Like, people are so in it all together. I'm not a sports person. And like, I was at the Public Theater benefit last night, and people were like, we're all leaving at 8:30. Like, these are theater people. And they're like, we have to go see the next. Like, it's all about, like, this city that has been through so much, and we're all together, and we're all rooting for this team that we love, that are our people with our New York celebrities down there. Like, it's very local and, you know, it's not about politics. It's really about that. And he comes in and he closes all the streets. And New Yorkers hate being inconvenienced. And I think. And then they lose.
- [40:54]
Reporter/Contributor Pablo Torre
There were parties outside the Garden for those who cannot afford to get in because these tickets are insanely expensive. Right? And so the sports affordability crisis, which is what it is, people can't afford to see their favorite teams anymore. Those parties are shut down because of the president. And then you go and look inside and you're like, it's the Epstein files, right? Howard Lutnick sitting courtside. You know, it's just it made the story very different from what it had the potential to be, which is the thing that happens only during crisis like 9 11, in which the city feels like a small town and everybody's pulling in the same direction and it is unifying. Instead, it becomes this reminder that we can't have nice things because the upstating class wants it.
- [41:41]
Main Host
But is he gonna be there on Wednesday?
- [41:42]
Reporter/Contributor Pablo Torre
The reporting so far has been, he will not be there for Game four.
- [41:46]
Main Host
Oh, God. Thank God. Thank God. Thank God for that.
- [41:49]
Reporter/Contributor Pablo Torre
And so maybe things can return to normal.
- [41:52]
Main Host
What do you make of Silver's interview? I saw that.
- [41:54]
Reporter/Contributor Pablo Torre
I think it's a fascinating case study in what it's like when you run a sports league that used to be in 2020, at the Vanguard of alleged progressivism.
- [42:06]
Main Host
Right. The George Floyd protest.
- [42:07]
Political Analyst
Yes.
- [42:07]
Main Host
And even this year, I mean, the Timberwolves were the first professional sports team to stand with the protesters in the street after Renee Nicole Good was killed before Oxford.
- [42:18]
Reporter/Contributor Pablo Torre
This was an example of a lack of. Not even just courage, the situational awareness. Exactly. Of awareness of what it looks like when you're selling the president to a bunch of players that, frankly, don't buy that BS.
- [42:35]
Main Host
I also thought it was bad pr. You could have done something like, hey, if you could afford to buy the ticket. I mean, you know, I don't know. I just.
- [42:41]
Reporter/Contributor Pablo Torre
You don't need to do.
- [42:43]
Main Host
You don't need to do. Correct. And that's what everyone else on the panel seemed to be reacting to. You don't need to do his PR forum.
- [42:49]
Reporter/Contributor Pablo Torre
Exactly.
- [42:49]
Main Host
Yeah.
- [42:50]
Panelist/Commentator
And at this moment in American life where we're seeing, we just had the Tonys, and there were so many of these people who wanted to talk about the importance of theater and the importance of LGBTQ and the importance of transgender and the importance of, like, people being out there and being themselves and having though to have that and then to have, you know, people doing this for Trump.
- [43:13]
Reporter/Contributor Pablo Torre
The emperor has clothes. Adam Silver.
- [43:16]
Main Host
The whole Trump 2.0 story is about the most powerful, the most wealthy capitulating in advance, doing Tim obeying in advance,
- [43:24]
Panelist/Commentator
and then normal people standing up.
- [43:28]
Main Host
All right. I feel like I could have this conversation forever. Maybe we'll do it on the podcast. To be continued.
- [43:32]
Reporter/Contributor Pablo Torre
Yes.
- [43:33]
Main Host
And you can. You can report out in the theater. You can report out the sports world. It'll go on for hours. Molly Dung. Fast. Pablo Torre, thank you so much, and congratulations on your Pulitzer. Much deserved. Much deserved. When we come back, polls are open. People are voting right now in four states. Isn't that exciting? One race is getting a whole lot of attention. It's that Senate seat in Maine. It is must win for Democrats. Quick break for us. We'll be right back. It is primary day today across four states in Maine, Nevada, South Carolina and North Dakota with key races for governor, Congress, statewide offices at when the state legislatures that we were talking about earlier in the hour, they're helping to shape the 2026 midterm landscape. They are important. The race getting the most national attention is Maine's Senate primary, where previously unknown Democratic candidate Graham Platner seems poised to weather the numerous scandals that have troubled his campaign to be the nominee for that crucial seat. His top opponent, Janet Mills, remains on the ballot despite suspending her campaign. But this from our reporter Kevin Fry on the ground. Quote, of the dozens of voters who spoke to Ms. Now since two press reports about his personal life, including allegations of sexting and toxic past relationships, most said they're sticking with Platner. And even as some express anxiety about the latest reports about the oyster farmer, some suggested they were more concerned that Mills could not beat Republican Senator Susan Collins. That will be a must win race for Democrats come November. Our very own Ali Velshi will be bringing you all of the results as they come in from the big board tonight. That is must see TV as you all know, so stay tuned. After a break. Donald Trump again rigging the narrative around elections that he isn't winning. Except this time it's worse. We'll explain the next hour of deadline. White House starts after a quick break. Don't go anywhere.
- [45:36]
Commercial Voice
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